Jam

[Michael Wallace]

What is your favourite jam? Mine is almost always strawberry, but with the exception of jam doughnuts, where it has to be raspberry. Despite being exposed to many new jams in my adult life, I still only really like strawberry. I just had some raspberry jam on toast for breakfast (we're out of strawberry) and it was very disappointing.

[Matt Morrison]

I'm all about raspberries over strawberries in terms of real fruit, so I carry that opinion over to my jam (as well as pavlova, doughnut, etc. etc.) choices in the same way, without even considering that strawberry could possibly be better in other non-real-fruit mediums to be honest. And I've never had to regret that opinion, though I'm also happy to accept the superiority of the raspberry over the strawberry is never more pronounced than in the real fruit, once you start adding all the sugar and cooking processes to other forms then the difference is much less of an issue for me.

[Jon O'Neill]

Blackcurrant
Strawberry
Raspberry

for the mainstream ones.

I went to this place:



a few times when I was little, and there were some pretty nice weird flavours that worked. But I really can't remember any of them. Alls I can remember is that kiwi jam is horrible.

[Mark James]

I don't like jam sandwiches. Marmalade on toast is ok but I couldn't be bothered to buy a jar of it for myself. Jam should be reserved for cakes really, not bread. And yeah, it has to be raspberry for doughnuts.

[Jon Corby]

Like Matt I massively prefer raspberries to strawberries, but like Mark I'm not really that fussed on any jam/bread combination. Toast and marmalade is good though. Or bread and marmalade. So I guess "citrus fruits" would be my answer - which makes me wonder what the difference is between jam and marmalade - is there one?

[Michael Wallace]

which makes me wonder what the difference is between jam and marmalade - is there one?

Marmalade is disgusting. That's the difference.

[Brian Moore]

I Hate Jam. (That was the original song from Kiss Me Kate.)

Good bread with good butter is the perfect savoury combination. Why spoil it with sweet mush? Bizarre.

[Peter Mabey]

It spoils the delicate taste of strawberries to convert it into jam - so my favourites are blackcurrant and taspberry - I agree the latter is better for doughnuts. However, the best for my toast is lime marmalade.
BTW, did you know the author James Tiptree jr. took her pseudonym from a jamjar?

[Karen Pearson]

I love The Jam!


Proper answer: Blackberry jam or lemon curd (preferably homemade)

[Eoin Monaghan]

I used to take strawberry jam sandwiches everyday and put strawberry jam on porridge. Now the only time I eat it is on toasted Nutty Krust, every single morning and night - lovely.

[Phil Reynolds]

kiwi jam is horrible

I'd imagine any sort of endangered flightless bird boiled up with sugar to make a sweet preserve would be pretty disgusting.

Anyway, the best proper jams are raspberry, blackberry and blackcurrant. Strawberries aren't tart enough to balance the sugar and you end up with a sickly mush.

[Nick Deller]

It depends on context. If it's the filling in a jam tart, it's apricot every time for me - the four non-apricot tarts in a typical pack of six are pretty much ballast. Strawberry or raspberry are perfectly good on toast or with a nice croissant, though.

[Andy Wilson]

I asked our drummer who works in a pub the other day 'would you like to have a jam?' (his drums were upstairs in the pub at the time). He looked at me funny as he knew that I knew that he was working and that it wasn't feasible. Then i said, 'go on, have a jam' and handed him a little packet of jam someone had left after eating a crossant.

[Ian Volante]

Jam with bits in is bad. Orange and lime marmalade is both lovely, and avoids the bits problem.

[Mike Brown]

So I guess "citrus fruits" would be my answer - which makes me wonder what the difference is between jam and marmalade - is there one?

I think you've just mentioned it, Jon - marmalade is made with citrus fruits, although I'm sure I've seen orange jam before now (which is probably a sweeter version of marmalade without any peel or something).

Just to add to the discussion, I love the fruit spreads made by Dalfour. No sugar, just fruits and fruit juice. Very nice and possibly slightly less unhealthy.

[Jon O'Neill]

Dunno about anyone else, but reading this thread has inspired me to have a jam sandwich(es?) twice now.

[Gavin Chipper]

What is your favourite jam? Mine is almost always strawberry, but with the exception of jam doughnuts, where it has to be raspberry. Despite being exposed to many new jams in my adult life, I still only really like strawberry. I just had some raspberry jam on toast for breakfast (we're out of strawberry) and it was very disappointing.

Do you get any choice with doughnuts? You just buy jam doughnuts. Also, is it actually jam? If I found some of that stuff in isolation and it wasn't in something advertised as a "jam" thing, I'm not sure I'd put it with the jam.

I don't eat that much jam, but when I do I normally quite like it. I'd probably go for blackcurrant, but I think most are quite nice.

As for sweet spreads on toast generally, I quite like lemon or lime curd as well.

[Michael Wallace]

You certainly get a choice of what jam goes in your doughnut at Morrisons, where we made the mistake once of trying their strawberry jam doughnuts and were unsurprisingly disapopinted. I've not noticed at other places, but Morrisons are pretty far down the food chain so I can't imagine they're the only ones who do it.

[Matt Morrison]

Morrisons are pretty far down the food chain

Fuck you. Just knocked up some awesome late night drunk pasta.